Roebourne

Prior to European settlement, the Aboriginal people inhabited Roebourne and surrounding areas for thousands of years.

Roebourne was established by European settlers in 1864 and became established as the centre for the developing pastoral industry. Roebourne was named in honour of the Surveyor General of Western Australia at that time, John Septimus Roe.

Successive cyclones caused great damage to the fabric of the town and in March 1872 a particularly severe cyclone all but destroyed the town. The 1880s saw the construction of the current existing Government buildings:

1884 – the Gaol
1886-7 – Police Quarters and Police Station
1886 – Courthouse
1886-7 – Hospital
1887 – Post Office

In 1887 a tramway connected the town with the port at Cossack. Roebourne was the chief town in the north west, servicing the pastoral industry, the pearling industry and the mining industry, including from the late 1880s the Pilbara Goldfields.

The town of Roebourne was developed on the land of the Ngarluma people. These people inhabited the ‘flood country’ from the Maitland River to the Peewah River – an area of approximately 6,400 square kilometres. Since the advent of European settlers, people from the Yindjibarndi, Punjima, Gurrama and Martuthinira areas have also settled in the town and surrounds. It is believed that there are no survivors of the Jaburara people who once lived on the Burrup Peninsula and surrounding areas.

The following are the Indigenous communities near Roebourne:

• Cheedita (in Roebourne)
• Mingullathando (Roebourne 5 Mile)
• Chiratha (60 km out of Karratha-Cheratta)
• Ngurawaana (100 km south east of Karratha)